So much for Oracle and NetBeans

After the big pow-wow a few months back between Sun Microsystems then-CEO Scott McNealy and Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison, I was on the end of my seat as NetBeans Day crept near.

The big check must have cleared by now, the one for the decade-long Java license fee that Oracle paid Sun. So I figured now was the perfect time for Oracle to make good on its stage declaration back at the Oracle-Sun jam, you remember, when Oracle said, absolutely, without a pinch of hesitation, yes, it surely was taking a hard look at NetBeans. Yessiree.

And here it is: NetBeans Day, that time when most Java devotees are in airplanes and cars winding their ways toward the JavaOne Conference, which begins tomorrow. And I searched eagerly the press releases -- all five of them -- coming out of NetBeans Day for the final bold stroke by Oracle, perhaps the biggest ISV in the world in terms of sheer datacenter influence-creating awe.

But no headline for me. I thought maybe: "Oracle Adopts NetBeans as Development Platform -- Tells Most Developers to Go to Hell," or "NetBeans Gains Huge Customer Win as Oracle Fusion Embraces Maverick IDE," or even "Oracle Takes Harder Look at NetBeans, Again."

But no, alas.

But I'm not giving up hope. Oracle has surprised me before. There are still two or three more big news days ahead of us this week for Oracle come on out and adopt NetBeans. I'll just sit here and wait a bit longer. No problem -- I have my Google alert for NetBeans set for stun.